I was actually just about to ask about this. I would think heat dissipation would be your biggest issue so if you can make a decent enough heat sink you can probably ramp it up quite a bit.

The materials start getting expensive and rare when you get into "hot enough to do real damage" teritory.

Synthetic gemstone lenses and such.

One major stumbling block is range. The peak power is dependent on focus. To close, and the light isn't concentrated enough to burn quickly. To far and you have the same problem.

Here's a crude ass diagram. (co-opted from something else entirely but the illustration can still be used) In our case, "object" would be the laser light source. The lens is the lens and "image location" is where the laser will deliver its maximum heat output. (Ignore the "eyes", those people are all blind now...) Building a laser that is powerfull enough to do damage even at sub-optimal range has been a major challenge which puts real destructive power beyond the budget and ability of most home hobbyists. (Even DARPA has had to spend decades working the bugs out.)

My armchair quarterback solution is to have two lasers on the device. One low power device that acts as rangefinder and another weaponized laser with two automatic lenses to adjust focal length. The range finder feeds information to a computer which controls the positioning of the automated lenses to focus your weapon against it's target.

I am impressed with how far consumer technology has come since I was a young boy and that balloon stunt was something you'd see in a university lab powered by a room full of equipment.

It's still just poping balloons though. You could etch with it to some degree. You could proabbaly cause a pretty nasty burn on someone if they were unable to move for some reason.

It still isn't as viable a balistic weapon as a gun or even a crossbow yet. But if things keep moving the way they are I'd be surprised if it took longer than 10-20 years for these things to become at least as lethal as handguns.

Well I'm still thinking about aircraft....not so much a personal weapon although I'm sure it would come in handy in a dark alley...

The standard lasers can currently interfere with and possibly crash aircraft just by hitting the cockpit. I wonder what a Spyder would do to a cockpit.

What about sensors on the plane? The de-icing equipment on big jump jetliners requires the ability to properly detect the temperature on the chassis....what if that sensor (or another) gets a direct hit with a 1000mW laser and fails to de-ice....planes have crashed and people have died when those sensors have failed.